On January 28, 2021, three 12-year-old Venezuelan girls took on the mission of reaching Santiago de Chile from Caracas. The risk was high, but the push from their families to have a better life was greater. Thus, they began a path through routes for migrant trafficking by land, passing through Colombia, Ecuador and finally Peru, where the ‘coyotes’ who guided them exposed them, among other things, to crossing a river on inflatable mattresses, until reaching Lima.
In the Peruvian capital the wait was long, but they moved forward. That is until March 10 when they received instructions from a ‘coyote’: “It’s 400 dollars more and you’ll get to Santiago,” they were told. There was no other option and his parents transferred the money via Western Union. While at the bus terminal, they met another ‘coyote’, who told them that they should continue with another guide who would be responsible for transporting them to Santiago.
But first they had to travel to Bolivia. At a terminal in La Paz, a woman met them. It was there that they heard for the first time a name that they would not forget: “Do not get off the van until ‘Estrella’ gives you the order.”
The journey continued to the Bolivian town of Pisiga, on the border with Chile, where they were transported to a hotel with tinted windows near the Chilean customs. “I am ‘Águila’ and I am schizophrenic. If you don’t listen to me, I’ll go crazy and someone here could get hurt,” Juan Trejo told them, who was displaying a gun on his back, secured with his belt.
The three girls complied with everything. They had no other option, they were already close to the objective and the fear and the long journey from Venezuela seemed further and further away. It was 9:00 p.m. and then “Estrella” appeared, who gave them some instructions: they had to leave and cross the border “now,” but without them. For that there were others designated, who guided them along with another group of migrants. However, upon approaching Chile they were detected by Carabineros. This generated a massive escape and the three girls managed to escape, returning to the hotel in Pisiga.
The anguish became something that, the researchers acknowledge, changed everything. The “Eagle” and the “Star” were clear: “Because of you they discovered us!” That caused another unforgettable scene for the minors, one of which relates: “There was a woman who was traveling with a baby, they tried to snatch it away to suffocate it since she was crying. “This whole situation generated more fear, since we noticed that they were dangerous individuals.” Today the minors are in Chile as protected witnesses in the case.
The “Star” was Carlos González Vaca, leader of the Aragua Train in Chile, who at the end of 2020 set foot on national territory for the first time. Today he, along with 11 other defendants, risk 200 years in prison, in one of the most relevant judicial processes that the Public Ministry – and the Ministry of the Interior as plaintiffs – is maintaining in its crusade against organized crime.
The “Eagle”, meanwhile, was Juan Trejo Varguilla, who is a union member of the PDI and the Tarapacá Regional Prosecutor’s Office as one of the four “logistics managers” of the organization. The eleven defendants – all imprisoned in different prisons in the country – are part of the preparation for the oral trial of the case, which began this Monday in Tarapacá and appears to be a true judicial milestone in the courts.
It was at the end of 2020 that the members of the Aragua Train settled in Chile, and the first to arrive was their boss, the “Estrella”. That, to lead a massive criminal organization that has carried out violent criminal acts. The last, the execution of the kidnapping and murder of Venezuelan lieutenant Ronald Ojeda.
A report from the PDI – to which he had access Third– defines this group as a “mega-band”, with “a hundred members, with an articulating nucleus” that has achieved “the common objective of territorially dominating the area.”
The police analysis goes back to the origins of the group, which comes from the state of Aragua, in Venezuela, where its coordination centers are in the San Vicente neighborhood and in the city jail, known as “Tocorón.” , and where their leader is: Héctor Rutherford Guerrero Flores, alias “Niño Guerrero”.
“As a result of the crisis in Venezuela, mega gangs have migrated throughout South America, with the aim of expanding their territorial control. Initially to Colombia and Brazil and later to Ecuador and Peru. As of 2020, it maintains a presence on the northern border of Chile,” summarizes the PDI report.
Furthermore, it is stated that they are economically nourished by kidnappings, hitmen, arms trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking, scams and “vaccines” (protection of legal-illegal businesses that operate in their territories). “Drug trafficking is just one of the ways in which they obtain their income,” the document reads.
Those who have investigated this organization warn that they have a military hierarchy to operate. Along the same lines, the PDI identified its chief, soldiers and operational arms. For example, they detected that “Estrella” is the leader of the group in Chile. “He gives instructions to his subordinates and receives reports of all the crimes carried out by the organization at the national level, such as drug trafficking, migrant trafficking, extortion (charging of transporters and prostitutes) and kidnappings,” the report states.
He also participated in migrant smuggling activities, where he had territorial control on the Bolivia-Chile border, although in Pisiga he captured his victims, and then kept them under threat at the Hotel España, in exchange for paying money before committing them. enter Chile through non-enabled steps located on the border.
His second in command in the group is Hernán Landaeta Garlotti, alias “Satanás”. His role is that of “star”, that is, someone “under the command of the leader” performs “functions as a hitman, and also participates in intimidations linked to the collection of ‘vaccines’ (commissions) in extreme cases, in which individuals resist.” to turn off”.
Landaeta Garlotti maintains two arrest warrants from Interpol. One dates from February 18, 2019 from Venezuela and the other is from Peru, from September 14, 2020. The reason: its link to qualified homicides in those countries.
In the third link appears Harold Petare, “place leader” of the organization. “He fulfills the role of lieutenant of the cell located in the Tarapacá Region,” details the PDI analysis, adding that he has participated in kidnappings and other crimes.
In addition, he maintains direct contact with “Estrella” and also with Juan Carlos Blanco, the “travel manager” of the band. “His activity consists of being in charge of the illegal transfer of migrants (…). He coordinates the collection of ‘vaccines’ from transporters of different nationalities, sometimes pointing out the collection ‘that he commands’, which is carried out through extortion,” warns the PDI.
To close the “high command” of the Aragua Train are the four “logistics chiefs”, whose role is to process the payment of travel tickets to the different bus companies within the region and to be in charge of the “reception of migrants, obtaining passengers and selling tickets to Santiago”, as well as charging those who transport illegal migrants across the border.
From then on, those who follow the line of command are the “soldiers,” who carry out the instructions of the rest, always under threat and violence that, researchers warn, is unusual in Chile.
For this reason, it has been a priority for the Public Ministry to achieve a sentence in this case, because in its opinion – and as stated in the accusation filed by the Tarapacá Regional Prosecutor’s Office – “its structure tends to be an adaptation of the military hierarchies. This is how with this form of organization and hierarchical structure, with iron discipline, it arrived in Chile, deploying in the regions of Tarapacá and Valparaíso.”
Almost three years after its emergence in Chile, the Aragua Train has become practically uncontrollable in its branches and variations. From the group that arrived for the first time, other “cells” emerged, such as “Los Gallegos”, and it is believed that another dozen organizations that, for those who investigate this type of groups, radicalized the way of committing crimes that was known in our country. .
